Byzantium, Constantinople, Carigrad and Istanbul are the names of the city once known for its conquerors, harems, sultans, emperors and treasures. Today it's a modern city which still touches our imagination. Yet who wouldn't want to taste a city, where wealth once flew into from all over the world. Silk, ebony, spices from India and China, wheat, dried fruits from Anatolia and Egypt and furs from Russia. All the roads lead to Constantinople and its beautiful waters surrounding it, full of ships supplying the capital of a huge empire, weather in the hands of Byzantium emperor or Turkish sultan. What are today New York, London, Tokyo and maybe Paris used to be the former Constantinople, today Istanbul. So let's sneak a peek behind the gates of the biggest metropolis in Turkey.
A unique city that never sleeps and offers something for everybody – from historians, romantics, shopaholics, food lovers, party animals, adventurists, soccer fans, or people who want to buy a fresh carrot in the darkest hour just before dawn, or a cell phone, or a button you’ve just lost...
Istanbul has always been an important center, thus it does not surprise us (especially due to its geographical position) it’s a city that connects East and West, modern and traditional. It’s a city, where on the left you can see a girl in just a few little patches of clothing entering a shopping mall, while on the right there’s a black covered person entering a mosque to pray. It is a city with a scent of Orient that even Agatha Christi noticed. A city oozing with the spirit of sultans, roman emperors, merchants with silk and spices and many more.
It is a city on two continents in both Europe and Asia divided by the Bosporus straights. A sail on it can brighten your day, especially if you’re lucky and get to see a romantic sunset and maybe even get to see dolphins, which would make your day just perfect. Crossing the continent over a bridge has a different rhythm, for it can take you just a few minutes or test your nerves with a two hour traffic jam – but you might plan about the things you still want to see… Agha Sophia, which was at the time the biggest church in the world and is today a mosque that serves as a museum as well, or the Blue Mosque right next to it. The underground water reservoir is also a sight to see and was visited even by James Bond. Walking down the Istikal street with about two million people circulating it (that the entire population of my native Slovenia) daily. But the best view of the city is from the tower of Galata and no wonder the first man should have flown from there. On the way you get to smell some spices and nuts and the path might take you down to the Egyptian bazar.
Without haggling nothing gets done. If you’re still warming up between colourful stands and show windows at the bazar, you should keep looking at the ground or the ceiling. Counting the cracks in the wall might help. Only when you’re ready you should start looking at the merchant and the products and the game is afoot. You’ve entered the zone of must buy for Turks are natural born merchants. Few minutes later you’ll be exiting satisfied with the purchase, for you got a leather jacket really cheap. But soon your smile will fade, when you’ll see the same jacket at the very same price you’ve bought it for in a shop. So you weren’t really getting such a great bargain after all.
Today Istanbul won’t greet you with savage turban wearing soldiers with scimitars, but by friendly locals who’ll be eager to show you the rich and colourful palette of the Turkish culture and your head won’t get chopped off, but you still might lose it.
